Training 4-Day Interactive Mentor-Coaching Program

Coaching is one of the most impactful processes in supporting leaders and teachers in growing their competence and confidence in the application and integration of new skills and strategies.

This 4-day program brings mentoring and coaching together as powerful allies to support a robust process for leading and learning in relationships. Since 2007, the Mentor-Coaching Institute has provided participants- administrators, supervisory officers, teachers, district employees- with an enhanced skill set that supports capacity building in a variety of educational contexts.

In each session, participants will be provided with many opportunities to practice and integrate the skills, attitudes, behaviours and conversational pathways that a coach-like leader needs to inhabit when working with mentees, teachers, students, other administrators, colleagues or parents.

The training has been carefully designed to support the participants’ learning and growth over time, with space in between the sessions for practice ‘back in the field’.Virtual Roundtables are also included after Sessions 2 and 3, to support participants with the integration of their learning and the coaching stance within their specific role and context. See below for more details.

As part of the MCI’s commitment to maximizing participants’ integration and application of their learning, an MCI facilitator will connect with the district prior to the training for background on the roles, contexts and needs of participants.

The training has been designed for a maximum of 35 participants.All Sessions and Virtual Roundtables are co-facilitated by the authors and program developers Kate Sharpe and Jeanie Nishimura or Kate Sharpe and an experienced MCI coach-facilitator.

Learning Objectives

Session 1

Laying the Foundation for Mentor-Coaching (2 days):

• introducing the mentor-coaching model, mindset, principles and critical skills for capacity building and resilient, sustainable mentoring and leadership
• developing skills for deep listening, asking impactful questions, offering effective feedback, and building capacity
• exploring the mentor-coaching mindset: builds capacity and accelerates learning
• providing opportunities to practice through demonstration coaching, peer coaching, and scenarios explicitly tied to leaders’ current context and needs
• expanding confidence and capacity to support change through a coach approach to leadership

Session 2

Enhancing Mentor-Coaching Skills: Co-Creating the Relationship and Navigating the Conversation (one day):

• exploring successes and challenges of integration of mentor-coaching principles and skills within leaders’ context and practice
• introducing learning in relationship: what sets the mentor-coaching relationship apart?
• cultivating the inner conditions and stance for ‘listening to’
• introducing the role and impact of strengths in maximizing performance
• observing and practicing integration of the structured mentor-coaching conversation
• continuing to practice coaching with feedback for further individual development

Session 2 Follow-Up

Virtual Roundtable: Integrating and Sustaining:

• 60- minute online follow-up meeting over Zoom
• scheduled 2-4 weeks after completion of Session 2
• designed to support integration of learning and further coaching practice
• additional online follow-up sessions are available at an additional cost

Session 3

Enhancing Mentor-Coaching Skills: Application and Integration (1-day)

• exploring successes and challenges of integrating mentor-coaching principles and skills within participants’ own role and context
• offering and inviting feedback; facing the feedback challenge; three approaches for offering feedback
• exploring the layers of the mentor-coaching conversation: demonstration coaching and peer coaching
• role-playing scenarios: practice offering feedback in a safe place
• making it happen: intentions, support & accountability

Session 3 Follow-Up

Virtual Roundtable: Integrating and Sustaining:

• two 60-minute online follow-up meetings over Zoom
• scheduled 4 and 8 weeks after completion of Session 3
• designed to support integration of learning and further coaching practice
• additional online follow-up sessions are available at an additional cost

Course Materials: MCI Course Kit

All participants will receive:

• the book: When Mentoring Meets Coaching: Shifting the Stance in Education (Pearson, 2017)
• MCI Course Book
• access to a premium version of the digital support materials, including videos, and additional working tools
• laminated mentor-coaching conversation guide